A Problem with Tension and a Problem with Timing

You probably think I am talking about my personal life when I talk about problems with tension and problems with timing. You might think so, but you would be wrong. I am talking about my sewing machine.

I have an old Pfaff, a real workhorse. I bought it when I started having a problem with tension and timing with my older Pfaff, and didn’t know where to take it in Kuwait to have it serviced. (I found a place to get it serviced, but then that place disappeared!) Now, when I am trying to finish up two quilts for the upcoming quilt show, is not a good time for it to act up, but I am also not surprised. Doesn’t the worst thing always happen at the worst possible time?

I have an even older sewing machine, a Singer Featherweight, that I can use while trying to figure out where to take my Pfaff in Pensacola for a service. The Featherweight is electric, one of the earliest portable sewing machines made, and when I would take it to be serviced in Qatar and Kuwait, the eyes at the shops would just gleam.

“They really knew what they were doing when they made this machine,” they would tell me. “You don’t see machines made like this anymore.”

The Singer Featherweight has no bells and whistles. It sews forward and in reverse. It will do free motions quilting because I have a special attachment for it. It has saved the day many a time before, and tomorrow, when the light is good, I will haul it out once again and set it up to get me through this crisis.

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